In Which We Get Some More Fantastic Adoption News

We got some great news today!  The social worker in Thailand has approved an adoption board date of December 19th for us, pending our Article 5 paperwork.  We also received word today that the US embassy has received our I-800 paperwork and can begin work on issuing our Article 5-- the last piece of paperwork we need before travel.  We should hopefully have that within two weeks. 

So our plane tickets have been bought and our hotel is booked!  I fly out on December 10th, and Jeremy will follow a few days later-- he's currently in a school for the army and his finals are that week, so he'll fly out as soon as he's finished with those.  We should meet Ellen some time during that first week.  We'll have our board date on December 19th, and if all goes well we should be home with Ellen two days before Christmas! 

It seems so surreal that in a mere seven and a half weeks we'll be in Thailand!  I've spent so much time dreaming about the day I would finally meet my daughter, and in less than two months that dream will finally be a reality.  This whole time that day has seemed so far in the future, and suddenly it's right around the corner. 

It's the same sort of feeling I got at the tail end of my pregnancy with Connor-- the whole idea of having a baby "someday" seemed to last forever, and then towards the middle of the last trimester all of the sudden it hit me that hey, I was actually having a baby soon!  I'm simultaneously elated and terrified, but I'm so happy that we're almost there.  December can't come fast enough.

I can't wait to meet her!

~Jess